Sewing for Squirm: Why Sew Clothes?

Although I’ve been interested in sewing blogs for a long time (especially those with kids clothing), I never really thought about making day to day clothing for Squirm. Crocheting jumpers and adding embellishments seemed like enough, especially when baby clothes were so cheap to buy.

The other problem with cheap clothes is that everyone had them. I bought Squirm a collection of leggings to wear over the winter. Two of my friends babies have exactly the same leggings as well as the other boy in his swimming class. My friend works at a child care centre and said that she sees the same clothes all the time – that there’s not a lot of originality in the clothing!

Of course, I could buy more expensive and ethical clothing – which would also be less likely to be the same as everyone elses. but I’ve noticed that clothing for small kids and babies tends to jump from extremely cheap ($4 – $10) to extremely expensive ($50-$60) – where’s the middle ground?! And clothing for boys tends to get very bland every quickly – not to mention all the truck and robot prints!

In the end, sewing becomes a really simple and easy solution. Material can be sourced at many places, from fabric shops, to my own wardrobe to op shops. I have a good sewing machine which is loving the work out. Wonderful bloggers post brilliant, detailed tutorials (they are amazing!) and there are even pattern makers who are selling good quality patterns for boys – something which you can’t find in the shop patterns (and you can print them again and again!)

So far I’ve made Squirm half a dozen t-shirts, some shorts (I’ve had to play with patterns to get over his cloth nappy bottom!) and several pairs of pajama pants. I’m having so much fun making things, learning so much about sewing and getting the satisfaction that Squirm is wearing truly original clothing.

Like this:

Related

Post navigation

2 comments

It’s so much more rewarding when you can sew it yourself isn’t it :)
And you’re right… these days there are so many great online free resources for sewing! I love that sewing is “cool” again. And there’s nothing better than someone asking where you got that shirt from and to be able to reply with “I made it myself” ;-)

I sew clothes for my children too, not all their clothes , but what I can, and I recycle the boys clothes from my middle child to girls clothes for my daughter who is younger, recycle, pillowcases to dresses and skirts, t-shirts that are too short, add a skirt to make a dress, there are so many ways to create clothes for children that needn’t be expensive or time consuming, and my children love the fact they are wearing something individual, my 5yr old daughter now looks at sheets and pillowcases as potential fabric for a dress or a skirt :-) And you have made such lovely clothes for your little one, keep up the good work